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Mayo Field /
Rochester Honkers
(click on the image
for a larger photo)
| Capacity | 2,500 (give or take) |
| Dimensions | 310L, 350 LC, 390C, 350RC, 310R |
| Playing Surface | Grass |
| Last Visit | 2006 |
| Web Site | rochesterhonkers.com |
| Online Broadcasts | Yes |
| Online Ticket Sales | No |
| Phone | 507/289-1170 |
| Ticket Prices (2006) | Adults (13 and older), $7 box seats, $5 grandstand; children 12 and under, $7 box seats, $3 grandstand; seniors 60 and older, $7 box seats, $3 grandstand. |
| League | Northwoods League |
| Parking | Free but limited. |
| Address/Directions | 403 E. Center Street, Rochester. Mayo Field is on the other side of the Zumbro River from downtown Rochester. It's considered part of the Civic Center complex, which includes an auditorium and more. Center Street intersects downtown Rochester, so if you follow any signs to downtown Rochester from the major freeways you'll be able to easily find Mayo Field. |
| Written by: | Kevin Reichard |
| Photos by: | Jim Robins |
| Rating |  |
(click on the image
for a larger photo)
You can either think of Mayo Field as being terribly small and barely adequate for organized baseball. Or you can think of Mayo Field as being intimate and perfectly scaled for the Northwoods League, which is suited for cities the size of Rochester and ballparks the size of Mayo Field. Personally, I think that Mayo Field is just the right size for its purpose, and whatever problems are posed by its smaller dimensions is made up for with its location and charm.
Like almost everything else of note in Rochester, Mayo Field is named for the Mayo Brothers, the doctors who founded the Mayo Clinic -- now a sprawling medical complex whose towers dominates downtown Rochester. Mayo Field is just across the Zumbro River from downtown Rochester, though technically it's part of the Mayo Civic Center complex that includes an auditorium and art museum.
Befitting an intimate layout, there's not too much to Mayo Field. There's a main grandstand with a press box and two luxury boxes that can hold up to 10 people comfortably. (They're actually a deal: $275 gets you a load of food from Outback Steakhouse, 10 game tickets, a couple of cases of Bud, and a case of pop.) All of the grandstand has comfortable backed seating, and the first two rows are reserved box seats. Since the grandstand is relatively small and well-designed, there aren't too many bad seats.
(click on the image
for a larger photo)
However, the best seats in the house aren't in the grandstand: they are down the third-base line. A high-end group deck atop the visitors' dugout seats 25, with the emphasis on high-end dining. The Fox 47 Sports Deck (shown below) sits a little farther down the line; for $25 a game ($15 for kids) you a relatively good view of the action, a great view of downtown Rochester (once the sun settles; at a 7 p.m. game, you're staring into the sun for the first hour of the game), and all the beer and food you can put away. We're not talking about a few cans of pop and some stale popcorn: we're talking about hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, brats, chicken, BBQ pork sandwiches, popcorn, pop, and beer. The deck was jammed on the night we attended a game.
Sadly, the best views were not accessible to anyone actually in the ballpark. Promptly at 7 p.m. at the playing of the National Anthem, two youngsters came outside from their house and climbed into a big tree overlooking right field. What a treat: to walk from your back door and climb a tree where you can watch a baseball game almost every night.
(click on the image
for a larger photo)
Concessions
The concessions have gradually been
upgraded in recent years at Mayo Field for Honkers
games. Available are premium Honker Dogs ($2.75),
regular hot dogs, brats, cheese curds, popcorn,
Hampton Road peanuts, candy and more. The beer
stand features 16-ounce glasses of Bud, Bud Light
(both $2.75),
and a very tasty Honkers Red Ale, an amber beer brewed by the August
Schell Brewing Company ($3.75). You can also wait and buy beer and
other concessions from the stands.
Really, the concession situation at Mayo Field is quite limited. There's not a lot of room around the ballpark, but given those constraints, there's usually not much of a wait to buy food. Having a separate sweets stand does relieve the pressure at the main concession stand.
(click on the image
for a larger photo)
Parking
There's a small parking lot next to Mayo
Field, but it fills up quick, especially if
there's a huge crowd at the nearby Mayo Civic
Center. Don't be seduced by one of the spots right
next to the gate: foul balls do frequently fly out
of the ballpark and dent parked cars. If you're staying downtown, don't bother
parking at Mayo Field -- just walk over.
History
The current location of Mayo Field has been a ballpark
since the turn of the century and served host to several notable teams,
including the North Stars (in the 1890s) and the McQuillan Aces in the
1920s. Black Sox legend Swede Risberg (shown left) played here as well when
he owned a dairy farm in nearby Blue Earth, and his teams also
played other barnstorming teams that would make their way
every summer throughout southern Minnesota. In recent years
the ballpark has been home to several very successful town
teams.
Minor-league baseball has failed twice in Rochester: the Rochester A's lasted for one season in the Three-I League, and the Rochester Aces were part of the rebirth of the independent Northern League in 1993. The Aces franchise became the Winnipeg Goldeyes in 1994.
Before/After the
Game
Rochester attracts visitors from around the world
thanks to the Mayo Clinic and IBM, so there are a host of shopping and
activity options.
If you're a ribs fan, you owe yourself a visit to Roscoe's Barbeque or John Hardy's BBQ. It seems odd that Rochester should be the center of BBQ in the Upper Midwest, but it is. Roscoe's serves the best pork ribs I've every had, but John Hardy's meals are better overall. (I am not alone in that opinion; Roscoe's has won a slew of awards in rib competitions.) They really literally fall off the bone: sweet and moist, the ribs are perfectly accompanied by Roscoe's special BBQ sauce. We also sampled the shredded pork, which had a slightly different flavor: smokier with a slightly more tart BBQ sauce. Our meals came with sides of garlic bread, JoJo potatoes, cole slaw (good, but nothing noteworthy) and pork beans, which were unlike your run-of-the-mill maple-flavored pork beans. At Roscoe's, the pork beans are laced with green peppers and have a vinegary taste to them -- serving as the perfect counter to the sweet BBQ sauce.
Roscoe's also features homemade root beer: $1.50 for a huge 32-ounce glass. The root beer is good, although not as good as A&W on draft. Still, it's always a good day when you can find real homemade root beer.
There are two Roscoe's in Rochester. We ate at the sit-down restaurant (4180 18th Av. NW.), but we use the term sit-down restaurant loosely, as the small restaurant has seating for 75 at the most. The original Roscoe's is actually a few blocks from Mayo Field at 603 4th St. SE., and it's an old root-beer stand where they happen to sell ribs.
John Hardy's BBQ (two locations: 929 Highway 52 North and 1940 S Broadway) is a little closer to its Southern roots, with black-eyed peas and other Southern delicacies on the menu. There really was a John Hardy, and he really did smoke ribs and meats in Rochester for many years. The ribs are huge country-style ribs, and the BBQ sauce is offered in a wide range of flavors.
An interesting and unique activity in downtown Rochester is a tour of the Mayo Clinic. They're offered weekdays at 10 a.m., and they cover the history of Mayo as well as a walking tour of the complex. If this is too organized for your tastes, you can drop by the Mayo Historical Suite, located in the third floor of Plummer Building (that's the oldest-looking tower in the Mayo complex; just enter any Mayo building and look for a map). The suite includes the original offices of Drs. William and Charles Mayo.
Those with a nose for baseball history will want to drop by Calvary Cemetery (215 8th Av. NW.) and check out Section 9, Lot 4, 1E for the grave of Archibald "Moonlight" Graham. If you've seen Field of Dreams, you know who "Moonlight" Graham was: as portrayed by Burt Lancaster, Graham was a retired ballplayer who was central to Kevin Costner's quest.
While the real Graham never met Kevin Costner, his life story was basically the same as portrayed in the movie. Graham was a minor-league ballplayer who was finally called to the big leagues on June 29, 1905, and played right field for the New York Giants for one inning. He didn't see any real action -- that day's opponent, the Brooklyn Dodgers, went down one-two-three without hitting the ball out of the infield -- and that same day he retired from professional baseball, deciding instead to pursue a medical degree first at the University of Minnesota and later at Johns Hopkins. He spent 50 years practicing medicine in Chisholm on Minnesota's Iron Range, the last 44 as the school physician for the Chisholm schools. He gained attention from his peers for his studies of children's' blood pressure. He died at the age of 89 and was buried in 1965 in Rochester.
Finally, definitely drop by the Barnes & Noble Bookstore in downtown Rochester. It's located in the old Chateau Theater, and the original theater decorations (including a chateau arch and dragons) were left intact.
(click on the image
for a larger photo)
An older photo of Slider,
the Honkers' mascot, from the 2003 season.
An older photo of Mayo Field
from the 2003 season. Note the lack of decorations in the
grandstand.
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